This disclosure relates to systems and methods for selecting a pillow and mattress.
Most everyone desires a good night's rest. Choosing the right pillow for a person's mattress and sleep characteristics is essential to ensuring a restful sleep. The correct pillow enhances a person's sleep by adding to the comfort of the mattress. The correct pillow also ensures proper spinal alignment. Selecting the wrong pillow can result in an improper neck, shoulder, and spinal alignment which can result in poor sleep efficiency and/or pain.
However, choosing the correct pillow for a person's mattress and sleep characteristics can be difficult. There are many different types of pillows available on the market today. Some vary in content (i.e., foam, fiber, air, or water), and some vary in shape (i.e., contour, flat, bulky, wide, or narrow). Pillows also vary in height and width, and in compression or interload force deflection (“IFD”). Soft pillows have a relatively low IFD while firm pillows have a relatively high IFD. The number of choices of pillows increases the probability that a person will select the wrong pillow for his or her mattress and sleep characteristics.
One major variable affecting pillow selection is a person's sleeping position. A person may prefer to sleep on their side, back, stomach or may alternate between these positions. Some research has shown that 68% of the U.S. population sleeps on their side, 16% on their back, 8% on their stomach and 8% use multiple positions. Moreover, the position that a person prefers in order to fall asleep may be different than the person's predominant position while sleeping.
Furthermore, the number of different types of mattresses available on the market compounds the problem. For instance, certain types of pillows complement foam mattresses, while others work best with waterbeds. Some types of pillows work better with innerspring mattresses, and yet others work better with air beds. While each of these types of mattresses may be generally categorized as a plush or soft, medium, or firm, the relative firmness of a pillow must complement the relative firmness of the mattress. Although compression tests may also be used to objectively measure the firmness of these types of mattresses, many people do not correctly categorize the relative firmness of their mattress.
Consumers generally have a challenging time verbalizing to the retail salesperson what they want in a mattress, and consequently, a pillow. This inability to verbalize the characteristics of a mattress, and thus a pillow, creates a disconnect between a consumer and a salesperson in the typical retail environment. Often in the retail environment when a consumer walks into a store and asks to see a mattress, the salesperson likely posits the question, “What kind of a mattress are you looking for?” The customer usually then replies, “Firm,” “Supportive,” “Pillowtop,” or “The one that's on sale.” This exchange is unproductive. None of the consumer's answers help the salesperson understand how to match a mattress, and thus a pillow, with the consumer's specific needs. Many times a consumer will think they want a “firm mattress.” However, after sampling several “firm mattresses” offered by the salesperson and objecting to them because they “feel too hard,” consumers eventually come to the realization that what they really need is a medium or plush mattress. Unfortunately, this process of repeatedly sampling mattresses offered by the salesperson tends to frustrate the consumer. More often than not, frustrated with the sales experience, the consumer will leave the store and postpone the purchase of a mattress to another day—less often will the consumer doggedly persist through the sampling process to finally arrive at a mattress that fits his or her needs. Without knowing what type of mattress is desired or needed, the consumer cannot efficiently select a pillow.
Ultimately, the consumer is looking for a better night's sleep and wants to purchase a quality mattress and pillow to improve their chances of achieving this. Further complicating the mattress selection process is the fact that there are two main variables affecting a consumer's purchasing decision, comfort and support. In order to find a quality pillow and mattress that meets the consumer's needs, they must have the right combination of both comfort and support. However, whether a quality mattress has the right combination of comfort and support for particular consumer is a very subjective individualized assessment. Currently, this assessment is made through the verbal exchange of the salesperson and consumer, as explained above. And as explained above, defining comfort or support verbally is not an easy task, and one which can easily frustrate the sales process and result in the consumer either leaving the store or choosing a mattress and/or pillow that is not a good fit for him or her. In the latter case, the store must then deal with returns, unhappy customers and/or lost profits.
Compounding the problem is that most consumers test a prospective new mattress while lying on their backs. Most consumers and salespersons ignore that approximately 65% of consumers actually sleep on their side. A mattress that feels good when one is lying on his or her back does not necessarily feel good when one is lying on his or her side. When lying on one's side, one will generate additional surface pressure as his or her weight is dispersed over a smaller area. In addition, when lying on one's side, the profile of the body is more generally pronounced. In other words, in the side lying position, the vertical height difference between the shoulder and the waist is generally greater than the vertical height difference between the lumbar and buttocks in the back lying (supine) position. This difference in weight distribution results in different pressure points for a side sleeper and a back sleeper. Thus, depending upon whether the consumer is predominantly a side sleeper or a back sleeper, the support structure of the mattress and the type of pillow may need to be substantially different. Because of differences in a consumer's body profile and pressure points in the predominant sleep position, it is important for a consumer to define comfort and support in terms of his or her predominant sleep position.
With all of these variables, it is often difficult for a consumer to determine the proper pillow and mattress for their individual use. In the case of a pillow, they are often purchased from mass merchants where there is no consultive selling. Consequently, many consumers chose the wrong pillow for their type use. Even in a situation where the consumer is purchasing from a store that has professional sales assistance (i.e., mattress stores, furniture stores, and department stores), time and training constraints make it difficult for these salespeople to sufficiently probe the consumer as to his or her pillow, mattress and sleep characteristics, and process this information correctly so as to determine the appropriate pillow and mattress for the consumer. It is clear that an effective tool to assist consumers in the selection of a proper mattress and pillow is needed.